Craft XL

Craft’s story began one day in 1973 when a pilot was experiencing problems and had to leave the cabin at a high altitude which brought a new problem. The temperature outside the cabin was minus fifty degrees and the pilot’s underwear was soaked in sweat. His clothes immediately formed an ice shell. Athletes’ bodies, begin to cool quickly when the clothing that is in contact with the skin gets wet by sweat. Their performance decreases, following the cooling of their bodies, altering the balance of fluids even more. If this problem can be solved, the effort will have been worth it. These were just some of the problems that caused Anders Bengtsson to go out for a run outside his home in Boras, Sweden, in the spring of 1973, wearing new underwear made of a material fresh from a factory in Halmstad. After a few kilometres, his body began to react as expected and he started to sweat. As usual, after the run he weighed his underwear, measuring the moisture content of the garment with a moisture meter and compared it with the previous results. There was no doubt, he seemed to have found the perfect garment, a garment that was responsible for propelling moisture away from the skin and towards the outside, with minimal absorption in the fibres. He was closer to solving the problem. The secret that was behind the discovery that Anders Bengtsson made after one of his long runs is that the material, polyester, does not get wet and only absorbs a minimum amount of moisture in the fibres. A technique in the manufacture of the fabric that greatly helps to wick away moisture and keep the skin fresh is added to this. In addition to developing underwear, garments were developed for the next layer to propel moisture further away from the body. The third outermost and insulating layer was made to protect against weather and wind without trapping moisture inside. These three layers are the beginning of the idea that Craft has been using since then in their running and cycling clothing.